Just finished 4 days in Paris

Well we have done Paris! It was awesome, we went to the Eiffel tower twice at day and night, saw the light show that happens on the hour. Went to the Versailles Palace and to Marie Antionette s Hide a way inside the grounds, we went to the Louvre, an saw the Monna Lisa, Venus Di Milo, and plenty of other amazing art and the biggest amount of Egyptian statues and artifacts ever! ( there must nt be any left in Egypt!) we also went to the Notre Dame Church and to Mont Mare Church and artist district. We also rode the Paris Metro about 20 times!

We are off to the Loire Valley tomorrow to rent bikes and Ride/Camp/Ride for 6 days, should be awesome, looks like good weather too. We will be riding between Samur and Belois, might take in a chateau or two as we go :)

The French people have been pretty nice to us as well ;)

Amsterdam

Yesterday we went to Amsterdam, and while there we went to the riche museum of Art and saw plenty of Rembrandt and Van Gogh ( both Dutch artists) and we saw one of the worlds most famous painting " The night watch" by Rembrandt. It was amazing, we also saw amazing paintings by Goya , William and Henri Van Der Veld. It was the best Art gallery I have ever been to and it only opened a month ago.

We got to have coffee in Rembrandt place and try Hollands best fries and mayo. We went on a canal ride with Berry and Herman, our best Dutch friends! ;) which told us alot about Dutch history and the canals. We floated past Anne Franks house and walked through the red light district and past the coffee shops. Bec got a photo next to a famous statue of a 'Salvation Army' woman, and I got a photo of a funny man doing tricks on his 3 wheeler gopher.

We also got to see the largest bike shed on earth and 1000's of bikes, some cool ones included my favourite Vamoof bikes and even one made all out of wood!

We had a nice night of Accomodation at a hotel at the airport, Funnely enought on Melbourne St!

We had a great time,

It was sad to say goodbye to Berry and Herman, but we know we will see them again.

Bye Norway and thankyou Ikea Bus!

Well our time in Norway is about to end, it has been soo special and we have seen so much natural beauty! Lakes, rivers, Fjords, ocean. It has been fantastic, it is definitely a country to put on the bucket list!

Today we are off to the airport to fly on Norwegian airlines to Amsterdam, so in true backpacker style we have caught the Ikea bus from out towards Stavanger into Oslo S station, ( the Ikea bus runs for free back and fourth to the CBD) and because the bus and trains here are pretty pricy quite a few of the locals hitch a ride with the good ol Ikea bus, but to make it look legit we got an Ikea bag and put a daypack in it. Haha the things we have done to save a bit of coin!) this is Backpacking! :D

Traveling from Bryne to Drammen in Norway

We have been loving our travels in Norway, it is a really cool country. They seem to be right at the front of sustainability, our friends house had lots of good ideas to save heat, it has an airflow system that took air from some rooms like the bathrooms and the main south facing rooms, and then pumps it into the other bedrooms on the north side, funny thing is that it's reverse to 'down under' being in the northern hemisphere they get all their sunlight from the south. That air system combined with floor heating seemed to keep the house really warm all the time, they also get a lot of heat from the sun through tall double glazed glass to the south in the lounge, it was really impressive, would love to use those ideas if we ever get to build a house.

We are on the train again today, heading for Drammen where our friends Alyssa and Anders live with their baby daughter. We are looking forward to catching up with them and seeing what it's like to live around the eastern side of Norway.

The prices of things here have been an eye opener to us, we knew Norway was an expensive country but have seen it first hand now. Though we have worked out people here get paid very well and that helps with the cost of living for them.

Our friends Jørgen and Guri near Bryne helped us travel very cheaply with them, which was a real blessing. They even borrowed bikes from Jorgen's  sister so that we could do the 60 km ride we did the other day. We hope they come to Australia to visit so we can repay the amazing hospitality they showed us.

Bec has been amazing at doing the budget and Europe has put us into the red a little, but for nearly 8 months of travel it's only a little in the red so that's awesome!

We also read some more of Matt Kempes travel book and it made me feel better to know that he thought that $79 pp a day in western Europe was good. And we have been lower than that per person. So that's good.

All in all we are feeling ready for the next part of Norway to explore, and then we will fly to Holland next Tuesday.

The Netherlands

Having a great time in Holland, we have ridden bikes (47km) seen the New land ( land reclaimed from the sea, and tomorrow going into Amsterdam, Can't wait! :)

Norway is going soo well!

We are loving Norway, our friends Jørgen and Guri have been taking such great care of us. They have showed us amazing sights of Norway and shared their culture with us. We feel soo lucky to be able to visit them. We have had all kinds of Norwegian food including Brown Cheese, Norwegian Chocolate ( Norwegian Kit Kats, and their version of Chocolate Wheatons) we have had local beers which were excellent. We also ate their shrimp and smoked salmon, also top knotch. We went into Stavanger yesterday and saw a band playing and was given a free cd, it was a free music festival, pretty cool. We also got to see the old town with cool old buildings and ships in the harbour. We also went to Pulpit Rock, an amazing Rock 600 m strait up from the Fjord below! :)

Jorgen and Guri had a Barbie yesterday and had some friends and family over, it felt really Aussie, especially when one of their friends from work ( who is from England) brought over a Pavlova! She said she thought it was from England but found out from her Mum it was Australian/NZ? Haha. All of their friends and family were soo nice to us! Talking to us and speaking in English etc

It was a great day.

Norway is really special...